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Mochipet

Girls Love Breakcore

(Daly City)

US release date: 3 April 2007

by Evan Sawdey

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Break It Down Now

Apparently, girls love breakcore.  And if David Wang has his way,
you will too.

Here’s the crash course: breakcore is a subgenre of electronica that is
centered around aggressive drill-n-bass (think Aphex Twin’s harder
moments) compressed into an instant-satisfaction pastiche like a DJ
“break” record (a compilation of usable/sample-ready drum breaks from
other artists).  Breakcore is IDM at its poppiest, jungle at its
heaviest, all while retaining a very distinct sense of humor.  In
other words: if your dance songs aren’t fast enough for you, then get
ready for a triathlon.

The man who fires the opening shot at this race is David Wang, here
using his Mochipet moniker.  Wang knows laptop manipulation well
(with skills that rival glitch-masters like Oval and Mouse on Mars),
having previously released genre-expanding mash-up mixes on top of his own
experimental keyboard madness.  Yet nothing could have prepared us
for the level of chaos displayed on Girls Love Breakcore.
Tracks like “Hyphycore” sound like a computer motherboard shoved into a
blender that’s set on frappe.  It’s relentless, nonstop, and
has a BPM count that puts Moby’s “Thousand” (the Guinness World
Record-holder for Fastest Song Ever) to complete shame.  Some of
these tracks are almost completely without melody, focusing more on the
chaos than any sort of pop standard.  Even “Wafflecore” has melodic
bass underlyings to a song that’s basically a dead ringer for
Squarepusher’s “Come on My Selector”.  Such a comparison wouldn’t be
a problem if it weren’t for the fact that a few other songs follow the
exact same pattern (particularly “Tumbacore” and “Botan Ricecore").
There’s nothing wrong with showing off one’s versatility, but we don’t
need the exact same example trotted out time and time again.

Fortunately, such moments are few.  The moments when Wang
incorporates larger outside influences, he strikes digital gold.  The
first full-length song on the record is “Justin Timberlakecore”: a track
that apes and gleefully parodies the synth-heavy Timbaland productions
that the ex-boy band hunk has gained acclaim for.  The song features
faux-falsetto singing, a “guest rapper”, and a stop-and-start pop beat
that eventually rises to a double-time, rave-like climax with everything
restrained to a regular dance-pop structure, while still allowing Mochipet
to pepper the build with drum hits galore.  It’s a fantastic style
parody that’s as funny as it is danceable.  The same sentiment can be
said for “Flappercore”, which rides a bouncy foxtrot bassline that
gradually lets in horns and other fantastic Roarin’ 20s details.
Elastic synth plunks and slight DJ scratches are thrown in as well, before
updating the drums gradually, shifting from simple trap-kit taps to
full-on techno beats.  It’s almost as if Wang is challenging himself
with these obscure samples, and more often than not he hits massive home
runs.

The album remains more of a compilation than anything else, as there’s
not much coherency from track-to-track.  The bass-heavy drill dance
of “Donkeycore” bleeds right into the Buddy Rich Combo-on-fire vibe of
“Clarinet Core” without much rhyme or reason.  A track like the
playfully creepy “Toy Piano Core” stands completely by itself, riding on a
fantastic hip-hop foundation (and oddly sounding like the Kidz Bop take on
Cypress Hill’s “Rock Superstar” before it descends into hard-rock
madness).  The breakcore revision of D4L’s “Laffy Taffy” (here
retitled—you got it—“Laffy Taffy Core") completely cops the original rap
hit because its beat is so simple.  From those humble beginnings,
Mochipet turns it into a visceral avalanche of chaos, proving that no
genre is ever free from David Wang’s schizophrenic revisioning (and a
track like “Beijing Operacore” needs to be heard to be believed).

Again, as an album, this isn’t a unified statement: it doesn’t set the
bar for what breakcore is, but it is certainly the most entertaining
introduction to a genre that tests the extremes of both structure and
form.  Though at times redundant, Girls Love Breakcore proves
to be a fascinating false statement: breakcore isn’t just for girls—it’s
for anyone who wants their dance music with a bit of crank.

Multiple
songs MySpace

RATING:

— 10 July 2007

Tagged as: mochipet

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